A large number of card games provide that a player may view the indicia on face of his or her playing card or cards while hiding the indicia from the opponent(s). For example, these cards in various stud poker games are called the player's “hole cards”. In the popular seven-card stud game of Texas Holdem, each player has two hole cards that only the player can include with the five cards that are dealt face-up to be used by all of the players at the table with their own hole cards. It is to the players great advantage to keep the opponents and spectators from seeing his or her hole cards while the indicia is viewed first and generally repeatedly during the play of the hand. Each time the player wants to check the indicia on the face of the hole cards, the player is forced to bend the corners of the card(s) upwardly while hiding the indicia from the opponents and spectators, the latter generating the greatest risk when they are generally to the rear of the player. During the long hours of a tournament the player frequently has to bend down close to the table surface hundreds of times to see the indicia in order to hide the indicia from the opponents. The playing cards are quickly damaged by the bending increasing the chance of the cards being marked by the bend requiring that the cards be quickly taken out of service. Further, the process of bending over, peeking at the cards, rising back up, and repeating the process numerous times during the play of each hand is tiring during the long hours of duration of large tournaments.
Further, with the advent of televised poker tournaments, casinos must, if they wish to host such tournaments, modify at least one feature table with televised monitoring of the hole cards. This has entailed major construction modifications of the table with glass windows in the playing surface table-top so that video cameras from below can read the hole cards with little risk that anyone outside a closed booth can see the card indicia. This modification is quite expensive and makes the table less useful for standard play. Although the television production would be greatly enhanced if many tables were so equipped, the casinos have thus far been unwilling to modify more that a single table out of hundreds for these tournaments despite the advantages of monitoring the play with a replayable record of each hand.
United States Patent Publication 2003/0052448 A1 to Bertrand discloses a tray device to hold playing cards that includes transparent easel 16 on which the cards rest on retaining ledge 18 and mirror to allow viewing the identity of the cards without lifting them off the easel. Most importantly, the Bertrand device requires the lifting of the cards off the table surface and onto the easel. The “retaining ledge 18” prevents the cards from being slid up onto the easel without their being lifted off the table, even if the ramp were extended to the table surface. When Bertrand claims that the cards need not be lifted to be viewed, he is clearly claiming that advantage only after the cards have been lifted up and placed on the “easel portion 16”. It is noted that the Bertrand reflection is a single mirror image and is difficult to read, particularly considering the viewing angle that may too low to see over the raised padded rail on many gaming tables.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,229 to Morse discloses a card holder and viewer device that includes transparent panel 16 on which the cards rest and mirror 3 to allow viewing the identity of the cards without lifting them off the panel that is not inclined. As in the Bertrand device the cards must be lifted off the table to place them on the transparent panel.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,039,102 and 5,681,039 to Miller disclose a Black Jack card reader using a single mirror 101.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,769 to Order discloses a card-dispensing device uses ramp 9 to dispense the cards only downwardly to the table surface such that the cards cannot be slid back up the ramp as the succeeding card(s) block the slot. Window 11 in the ramp is filled with prism 6 allowing the dispensing card to be read.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,791 to Bagnato, III discloses a sole of feet viewing device that includes a horizontal transparent panel on which the feet rest and mirror 42 to allow viewing the bottom of the feet. The device could not be used for playing cards without lifting them off the table to place them on the transparent panel.
United States Patent Publication 2003/0176209 to Soltys et al discloses an apparatus to read machine-readable indicia on playing cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,074,319 to McGovern, U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,643 to Titoff, U.S. Pat. No. 1,152,156 to Falk, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,096,389 to Dudley disclose reading and display devices that, along with the devices described in the patents listed hereinabove, do not meet the needs described above nor attain the objects of this invention described herein below.